MURRIETA CREEK: Four cities unite to form regional trail

Gary Schmidt, 43, of Temecula walks along the multiuse trail off of Diaz Road in Temecula on May 28. The cities of Wildomar, Lake Elsinore, Murrieta and Temecula are teaming with the Sierra Club to create a multiuse trail that will give area residents access to new walking/biking spots in Southwest County.

Murrieta Creek Regional Trail

The Temecula resident is really looking forward to the day when he can lace up his shoes and run on a trail that stretches from Temecula to Lake Elsinore, a quiet and serene ribbon that safely passes through Murrieta and Wildomar.

And after the Utah native has done the length on foot, he plans to try it on a bike as well.

“I’m an avid cyclist and avid runner,” he said. “I even travel to different states to utilize trail systems. Unfortunately we don’t have anything like that. This would be a huge step in the right direction for our future.”

“This” is the Murrieta Creek Regional Trail, a 12-mile-long, multipurpose path that will connect the four communities and serve as the spine for a network of trails that lead from it, a list that includes the Santa Rosa Plateau in Murrieta and Butterfield Trail in Temecula.

Temecula this week became the fourth and final city to approve the proposed alignment of the trail, which will run alongside Murrieta Creek through Temecula, Murrieta and Wildomar and then head north to Lake Elsinore.

The cost of the project, which could take a decade or more to complete, has not been determined.

The trail is the brainchild of Pam Nelson of the Santa Margarita Group of the San Gorgonio Chapter of the Sierra Club. A couple of years ago, Nelson helped secure a type of federal grant that assigns a National Parks Service employee – Patrick Johnston, in this case – to help write the technical documents associated with the project.

Johnston, during an appearance before the Temecula City Council on Tuesday, said his goal was creating a path that provides a “seamless experience” for users and laying the foundation for a corridor that will complement, and link to, other area trails.

With that work complete and all four cities on board, the next step is working with the Riverside County Flood Control District to secure an encroachment permit that will allow people to access existing paths alongside the creek.

Temecula officials said this should be relatively easy to obtain and it will create what is being called a “interim, unimproved trail.”

Dusty Williams, the flood control district’s general manager, said Wednesday the district is open to an agreement that basically transfers liability in connection with recreation uses of the paths to the cities.

To move beyond that interim route to the actual trail sketched out in Johnston’s report, the various cities will need to utilize all manner of funding – county, state, federal and local – to pay for the improvements of the segments in their respective communities.

In Temecula and Murrieta, city leaders are hoping to tap federal dollars tied to the Murrieta Creek flood control project that has been in the planning stages for decades. In Wildomar and Lake Elsinore, officials will be tapping a variety of sources, such as grants and development impact fees, to build their segments, said Dan York, Wildomar’s public works director.

Join the conversation

We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful
conversations about issues in our community. Although we do not pre-screen comments,
we reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful,
threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent
or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law,
regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions.